About

$7,460

pledged of $2,000 goal

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backers

Yellow Peril is an Asian American office romance comedy webcomic that updates three times a week at ypcomic.com! It stars Kane, Bodie (both graphic designers), and Ally (a project manager) who navigate the treacherous tedium of corporate life while trying to balance the chaos of their love lives. It's my answer to the distinct lack of Asian American sit-coms on television, like The Office but with more swearing. In 2011, I self-published book 1, Back to the Grind: A Yellow Peril Collection, which collects the first year of strips.

THE BOOK

I'm hoping to raise money to publish a print edition of book 2, The Client is Always: A Yellow Peril Collection. The strips collected in this volume follow Kane, Bodie, and Ally as they contemplate striking out on their own as a small start-up. Included in the book is an extensive strip commentary section with notes on specific scenes, panels, and the many local restaurants that pop up throughout the comic.

THE REWARDS

Every backer will get PDF Digiditions of books 1 and 2 because you are awesome.

Head Sketches

If you choose a tier with a sketch, you can choose any of the characters listed on the cast page. Some of them will be smiling, some of them will be grimacing, some of them may have glasses, some of them may look like Kamen Rider. It depends on how I'm feeling and how many I have to get through.

Shirt Design

This is a Kitsuneruma which makes its first appearance in the comic here.

There are many Daruma wishing dolls that appear throughout Yellow Peril. Traditional Daruma dolls are modeled after Bodhidharma, the first Zen Buddhist practitioner. It is said that he meditated in a cave for so long that his limbs atrophied. That's why Daruma dolls have no limbs. They are usually hollow with a low center of gravity so if you knock them over, they roll back upright.

Daruma dolls come without any eyes. When you make a wish, you color in the right eye. If/when your wish comes true, you color in the left eye. Some Japanese corporations use these to motivate their employees to succeed.

I've sort of taken the idea of the Daruma doll and come up with slight variations. Throughout the comic, you'll see Lovarumas, Deatharumas, and Kitsunerumas. Lovearumas are for romantic wishes. Deatharumas are for endings, like if you want a relationship to end. Kitsunerumas are inspired by the Japanese fox spirit which is known for mischief which makes the Kitsuneruma for mischievous wishes.

Five Deadly Venom Pickguards

The guitar body was instantly picked up when the project launched, so I wanted to produce some other guitar related things. I'm currently painting some Stratocaster style pickguards in the theme of the classic Shaw Brothers film, Five Deadly Venoms. Depicted are four of the five, Toad, Snake, Lizard, and Scorpion.

I'm posting photos on my instagram as I work on these pieces so you can follow my progress.

Guitar With a Dragon Tattoo

These photos were taken before it was clear coated, but this is the top tier reward. Note the lack of neck, pickups, bridge, tone and volume knobs, or pickup selector. If you would like to play this beast at a show, you'll need to buy a few bits and take it to a luthier who can wire it all up for you. Or you can just display it in your home as an art piece.

Customizing guitars is something I've always wanted to do so I thought this would be a really fun way to dip my toes into the waters.

GOAL STRETCHING

$2000 - Every backer will get a sticker! Actually, two stickers. One to stick, one to keep. ACHIEVED

$3000 - All book orders will receive two mini prints. ACHIEVED

$4000 - All book orders will receive a bag of five YP branded guitar picks. ACHIEVED

$5000 - All book orders will receive a YP 11x17 poster of the cast as Super Sentai (Power Rangers). ACHIEVED

$6000 - The YP EP! I will record and release a 5 song EP with tracks related to the comic. It shall be glorious! ACHIEVED

Risks and challenges

Production and layout of Book 2 is complete and ready for print. The challenge now is to see how many orders we need them to fulfill. Other than that, all the reward items are pieces that are in hand and ready to go. I am a one-man operation, so shipping will be the biggest hurdle. But I plan on calling all my friends over for a massive shipping/packing/pizza/bad movie night to ensure all the rewards are sent out in a timely fashion.

Kickstarter is not a store.

Pledge $125 or more
About $125

ORIGINAL ART LEVEL! Everything in the WEAR IT WITH PRIDE LEVEL plus an ORIGINAL COMIC PAGE! Please indicate your top 3 comics. Requests will be fulfilled in the order the pledge was received. If one of your choices is unavailable, I'll go to the next one. Hopefully, you'll get a strip within your top 3. I'll make arrangements with you if it's not.

Signed copies of both books with head sketches of the character of your choosing.

Kickstarter is not a store.

Pledge $500 or more
About $500

GUITAR WITH A DRAGON TATTOO LEVEL! You get everything in the ORIGINAL ART LEVEL plus a CUSTOM PAINTED GUITAR BODY! Please note, this is a BODY ONLY, suitable for display. To make it rock out, you will have to take it to a luthier or break out the soldering iron yourself and install a whole mess of gear.